The plan (Gantt)
The Gantt page, under Plan in the project menu, draws the project's plan on a timeline: its tasks as bars, what each waits for as arrows, and its milestones as diamonds. Nothing on it is typed in as a percentage. A task's progress comes from the to-dos ticked off on it and from its sub-tasks, and a milestone's from criteria measured against the project's artifacts, such as every user need addressed.
The tasks are the cards of the Board. A card added on the board is a task here, and a task added here is a card there: one title, one assignee, one due date. The plan adds what a schedule needs and a board does not: a start date, sub-tasks, and what a task depends on.
Reading the chart
The outline on the left lists the tasks, numbered as an outline (1, 1.1, 1.2, 2). A task with sub-tasks has an arrow that folds them away. The figure at the end of each row is the task's progress.
On the timeline, each task is a bar from its start to its due date:
- The bar fills from the left as the task progresses.
- A green bar is a task in Done. A red bar is late: it is past its due date and not done.
- A task with sub-tasks is drawn as a thinner, darker bar that spans all of them.
- An arrow runs from a task to each task that waits for it. A dashed red arrow means the waiting task starts before the other one ends; the outline marks that task with a warning sign.
- A task with no dates yet shows + Schedule at today.
The row of Milestones above the tasks holds a diamond for each milestone, with its name and progress. The thin band leading up to a diamond, from the milestone before it, fills as that milestone's criteria are met. The red vertical line is today.
Days, Weeks, Months and Quarters change the scale. The page opens at the scale that shows the whole plan. The figures above the chart count the plan: how far it is complete, its tasks, those done, late and not yet scheduled, and the milestones met.
Scheduling tasks
Add task makes a card in the board's To Do column and places it on the plan, with a start and a due date if you give them.
To move a task, drag its bar. To change one date, drag that end of the bar. Both move in whole days. To place a task that has no dates, choose + Schedule in its row: it gets a week from today, which you then drag to where it belongs.
Select a task to open it beside the chart. There you can:
- set or clear its Start and Due dates. The due date is the card's own, so the board shows the same day;
- make it a sub-task of another task, or a top-level task again;
- choose the tasks it depends on: it should not start before they end;
- add to-dos and tick them off;
- add sub-tasks.
A task cannot start after it is due, be a sub-task of one of its own sub-tasks, or depend on a task that already waits for it.
Progress from to-dos and sub-tasks
A task's progress is worked out, so it never goes stale:
| The task | Its progress |
|---|---|
| Is in Done on the board | 100% |
| Has to-dos or sub-tasks | The share of its to-dos ticked off, with each sub-task counting by its own progress |
| Has neither | 0% until it is moved to Done |
A to-do added on a task is one of the project's to-dos: the To-dos page lists it with the others, and ticking it off in either place moves the task's bar. A task with two of its four to-dos ticked is 50%; a task with one finished sub-task and one at 50% is 75%.
Milestones and their criteria
A milestone marks a point the project must reach. Each has criteria: a measure of the project's artifacts and the percentage it must reach.
| Criterion | What it counts |
|---|---|
| User needs addressed | User needs that at least one requirement derives from |
| Requirements approved | Requirements whose review status is approved |
| Requirements covered by design | Requirements that a design item satisfies |
| Requirements with a test case | Requirements that a test case verifies |
| Requirements verified | Requirements whose verification passes |
| Test cases passing | Test cases whose latest result is a pass |
| Hazards mitigated | Hazards that a design item mitigates |
| Plan tasks done | Tasks due by the milestone's date that are in Done |
Add milestone starts from a preset, such as Definition complete (user needs addressed: 100%), which you can change: give the milestone a name, a date, and any criteria with their targets. An early milestone might ask only that every user need is addressed; a later one that 80% of requirements are verified.
A milestone's progress is how far its criteria have come toward their targets, averaged. It is met when every criterion has reached its target, and late when its date has passed and it is not met. Select a milestone to see each criterion's figure and the count behind it, and to edit or delete it. A milestone with no criteria shows no progress.
Release milestones
Every release on the Releases page is a milestone on the plan, drawn as a filled diamond at the release's target date. Its name, date and status are the release's: change them on the Releases page, which Open the release leads to.
A release milestone starts with two criteria: every requirement in the release approved, and every one verified, which is what the Releases page calls ready. Edit criteria sets its own, and Reset to defaults puts those two back. Its requirement criteria count only the requirements in that release. A release marked Released is met.
Exporting the plan
Export saves the plan as a file:
- PDF: the chart on landscape pages, with the outline, dates, bars, milestones and today's line, then the milestones with their criteria.
- Excel: the tasks with a timeline of weeks drawn beside them, and the milestones on a second sheet.
- CSV: the tasks, then the milestones and their criteria.
- JSON: the whole plan as the app reads it.
Agents read the plan with the get_plan tool and place a task with
schedule_work_item.
On a phone
A timeline needs more width than a phone has, so the phone shows the same plan as a schedule. Four tiles give the figures. Under Schedule, the tasks are grouped by the milestone they are due before, each with its dates and a progress bar; Milestones lists the milestones with their progress. Tap a task or a milestone to open it and make the same edits as on a computer, by setting dates rather than dragging.
On a tablet the chart is shown. With a touch screen, bars do not drag: set a task's dates in its panel.